Eat More Chocolate During Pregnancy

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Chocolate in pregnancy keeps baby happy

 

10:55 07 April 04

 

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Expectant mothers can take heart this Easter. Tucking into chocolate eggs

is good for the baby, according to a study of over 300 women - especially

if you are feeling a bit on edge.

 

Katri Raikkonen at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and her colleagues

asked pregnant women to rate their stress levels and chocolate consumption.

 

After the babies were born, they looked for an association between the

amount of chocolate their mothers had eaten and the babies' behaviour. Six

months after birth, the researchers asked mothers to rate their infants'

behaviour in various categories, including fear, soothability, smiling and

laughter.

 

The babies born to women who had been eating chocolate daily during

pregnancy were more active and " positively reactive " - a measure that

encompasses traits such as smiling and laughter.

 

 

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And the babies of stressed women who had regularly consumed chocolate

showed less fear of new situations than babies of stressed women who

abstained.

 

The researchers point out that they cannot rule out the possibility that

chocolate consumption and baby behaviour are both linked with some other

factor.

 

But they speculate that the effects they observed could result from

chemicals in chocolate associated with positive mood being passed on to

the baby in the womb.

 

Journal reference: Early Human Development (vol 76, p 139)

 

 

 

 

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